Amazon recently announced that the Alexa AI powering its Echo and other hardware has now learned 1,000 “skills” (up from just 135 in January). In case you’re not up to speed with all the new tricks, we’ve picked out 40 of our favorites—you can discover the other 960 yourself.

Unless you’re one of the handful of people rocking a Windows Phone, you won’t have much experience with Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant. With the roll-out of Windows 10, Cortana is about to make a lot of new friends very quickly—and like me, they might soon find themselves shouting instructions at…

You can perform a number of app functions with Google voice commands, like playing music for example. While Google usually lets you choose which app to use each time, it will now learn which apps you prefer and auto-select them.

The next time someone tells you to stop blowing bubbles in your drink, tell them you’re working on your singing career. As it turns out, blowing into a straw can help exercise your vocal cords and prevent losing your voice.

Sometimes you laugh because something is genuinely funny; sometimes you just do it to be polite. But fake laughter is very different in tone from real laughter, and most of the time, people can tell the difference.

If you’re looking for a headset that’s great when you’re talking to coworkers on Skype or Hangouts, teammates on Teamspeak or Ventrilo, or just rocking out to music, you have options. We asked you for your faves, then looked at the five best headsets. Now it’s time to crown the crowd favorite.

Whether you're gaming, taking video calls, listening to music, or doing all three, a good headset makes a huge difference. There are tons of choices on the market, lots of them good, but this week we're looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.

Whether you're video chatting or getting your game on, a good headset makes all the difference. A great headset will make sure you can hear everything around you, or just listen to music when you don't need the mic. This week, we want to know which headsets you think are the best.

Whether you’re talking to family on Skype or Hangouts, or you’re playing multiplayer games and need your teammates to hear you, there are a few simple things you can to do make sure your audio comes through clearly.

If you're a regular Skype user, it might be a smart idea to sign out when you're not using it. A newly uncovered security flaw may make it possible for users to call in to a device without getting approval first.

Today, Microsoft announced that it plans to bring Skype to the web. While other chat services like Facebook Messenger and Hangouts have been web-based for a while, Skype has lagged behind. Until now. The new service—which is slated to roll out "in the coming weeks" on Skype.com—will allow instant messages, voice, and…

Singing your favorite songs is fun, until you come across one that's outside of your vocal range. With a little know-how, you can change a song's pitch with the free, cross-platform audio editor Audacity.

Knowing how to use your voice is important for any aspiring musician or hobbyist. One of the first steps to developing your voice as an instrument is learning your vocal range, and this video helps you do it in just under 2 minutes.

We've talked before about how to use AutoVoice, the excellent Tasker plugin, to create a custom voice command for anything on Android. Now, the plugin allows you to tie those commands directly into Google Now, so you can trigger anything you want with a simple "Ok, Google."

Android/Web: Previously mentioned Gruveo took the wraps off of a major update today, boosting its anonymous video calling service and unveiling Android support that lets you talk to others on the go without installing an app first.

Your smartphone can double up as a dictaphone. Point your handset at the speaker and you can record meetings, lectures and interviews. Google Play has plenty of great voice recording apps, but Cogi rises to the top by recognizing the core needs of recording speech better than other apps.